Labels

Publishing Design: Task 02


WEEK 01 - WEEK 08 (30/08/2022 - 18/10/2022)
Adena Tan Sue Lynn (0345769) / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Publishing Design
Task 02

DIRECTORY

LECTURES

Lectures 01 - 05 can be found here. 

INSTRUCTIONS

We were told to carry out our generation of our content. Thus, I wrote a mini self-pity memoir of how I've been feeling recently. I was quite inspired by Jorts' mini piece of wanting to be a cat.

After this, I started planning the visuals for my work. I created a moodboard to kickstart this journey.

I wanted something more monotonous with a cutesy feel to the visuals. I also added a contrast colour of pink as I felt it would be refreshing in the sea of blues. 

I did all my visuals in Medibang Paint Pro, either on 80x40mm or 48x40mm canvases (double the book dimensions) as I wanted the visuals to be as clear as possible, especially when printing since I wasn't using a vector-based software. 

Figure 1.1.1 Illustration Files

For my illustrations, I had used the G-Pen as my main brush as I wanted something that felt a bit friendlier than the smooth strokes that Medibang's normal Pen setting has. I think it helped in the long run as the strokes has a bit more character to them.


FINAL SUBMISSION: 

Figure 2.1.1 3000 Words Formatted, PDF

Figure 2.2.1 Visual 01: Cat Sweets, JPEG
Wouldn’t being a cat be so sweet? 

Figure 2.2.2 Visual 02: Cat Brain, JPEG
As a cat owner, I know aspects of a cat’s life. 

Figure 2.2.3 Visual 03: Cat Paw, JPEG
I think this might be the first time I ever share why I wish my hands were soft, rounded paws.

Figure 2.2.4 Visual 04: Cat Ocean, JPEG
How have we not discovered at least thirty per cent of the ocean?

Figure 2.2.5 Visual 05: Cat Space, JPEG
We are specks in comparison to the entire universe. 

Figure 2.2.6 Visual 06: Cat Float, JPEG
I feel like I am floating

Figure 2.2.7 Visual 07: Cat Brew, JPEG
Is my head such an odd space where these thoughts brew? 

Figure 2.2.8 Visual 08: Cat Run, PNG
Once I get to a goal, I never stop to celebrate my achievements.

Figure 2.2.9 Visual 09: Cat Spine, JPEG
"...my spine was too straight compared to other people"

Figure 2.2.10 Visual 10: Cat Jail, JPEG
However, I feel guilty. 

Figure 2.2.11 Visual 11: Cat Zoom, JPEG
It may sound funny, as he is no mentor or lecturer. 

Figure 2.2.12 Visual 12: Cat Escape, JPEG
An escape is what I wish every year on my birthday for. 

Figure 2.2.13 Visual 13: Cat Mirror, JPEG
Sometimes, I look at my insecurities and ponder if things would look up if I was a little feline. 

Figure 2.2.14 Visual 14: Cat Snowy, JPEG
Whenever I feel myself getting overwhelmed, I tend to look at my cat. 

Figure 2.2.15 Visual 15: Cat Egg, JPEG
The light within the cracks. 

Figure 2.2.16 Visual 16: Cat Feed, JPEG
I know to perfect this moment for him, he would probably want the chicken treats we give him. 

 
Figure 2.2.17 Visual Compilation, PDF

Figures 2.2.18 - 2.2.19 Thumbnails of Illustrations, JPEG


                                            Figure 2.2.17 Visual Compilation, PDF.


FEEDBACK

Week 04
General Feedback: Show the audience what they would like. Avoid predictability and think outside the box in order to create impact. This can be done by changing up angles, views, etc. Try adjusting visuals to create more interest (by cropping, etc). 

Specific Feedback: The white backgrounds in 3 of my artworks makes my work feel a little incomplete. Make a lot more filled up space, consider how to do this. For my space cat, it was recommended to allow for it to be more 'floaty', allow the cat to be more aimless by having multiples of the same cat to showcase he's floating around. For my sweets, make more! Lollipops, diff types of sweets. Mr Vinod noted that I'm on the right track but I need to maximise my work. 

REFLECTION

Experience

Overall, I would say this has been a quite fun, but somehow a bit stressful experience! It's been fun in where I can draw cats as I really enjoy drawing lil' cartoon animals, but stressful in the sense I do not think I have pumped out so many visuals in such a period of time. (I am very weak..) But I think the time crunch really forced me to learn how to adapt my style. Usually, I love blending with an airbrush, but I take forever with that. However, I think that provided my work a benefit where it has the beauty of looking really monotonous but with flair... if you get what I mean.

Observation

Through this experience, I got to observe many other illustrators' works and see what had worked for them. For me, it gave me a chance to binge observe my favourite artists' works and just be able to stare at them and claim that I am indeed learning something, which I did. SO, it worked out well.

Findings

I found that the bucket tool on Medibang Paint Pro works wonders when you have big canvases. For my first few, I was just manually colouring them in, but I was gifted the mind of a forgetful person, so one day I had forgotten to bring my Wacom Pen with me to campus, and I needed to get some work done. I just used the paint bucket and almost cried literal tears of joy when I realised that they work better with large canvases as opposed to my usual 2000x2000px. 


FURTHER READING

I decided to read an article from The Book Designer which highlighted some common mistakes designers tend to make when designing books. 

Figure 3.1.1 Article Title

In this article, the author highlights design mistakes such as rampant running heads, extra spacing when text is justified, unblank blank pages, mangled margins & the rag right composition. While these can seem common, it was a great reminder for myself to avoid making these mistakes as simple things like these always tend to slip my mind really easily.


REFERENCES & PICTURE CREDITS

Friedlander, J. (2022, September 02). Top 5 book design mistakes (illustrated). https://www.thebookdesigner.com/book-design-mistakes/?channel=Organic&medium=Google%20-%20Search






Labels:

Popular Posts